Review: DANCE LIKE A MAN at NCPA

A few days ago I caught the latest production of Dance Like A Man, an English drama by the Sahitya Akademi Award winner Mahesh Dattani, adapted for stage by The Primetime Theatre Co’s Lillette Dubey. The play explores the lives of dancers juggling gender biases, financial responsibilities and personal traumas in a realist fashion, without indulging in a deeper exploration of dance as a craft or performance as a vulnerability. 

Dance Like A Man is an example of the many possibilities of stagecraft, where it is the medium of the stage that helps build the story. From the very onset, the mise-en-scène presents the interior of a sturdy house, replete with vintage furniture, tidy despite the wear and tear. The most important signifier of all, an old tinted portrait of the family patriarch adorning the Nehru cap hangs in the middle. As we soak in the setting, the play implodes into a squabble between a young couple, Lata and Vishwas, moving about conspicuously in the living room, waiting to meet Lata’s parents for the first time. Lata’s parents, Ratna and Jairaj, are professional classical dancers, too preoccupied by their own past to care for the couple. Lata is Ratna’s last hope, a dancer and a transplant for her own dreams. As we try to unravel what led to this, we see Lata and Vishwas transform into a young Ratna and Jairaj, taking us into the past where heteronormative gender roles became a hindrance to their creative freedom. The most intriguing character to me was Amritlal, Jairaj’s freedom-fighter father, toggling between his own silos of modernity and tradition. 

The liberal use of dual roles across the cast was delightful. Dubey’s direction was careful in the changing accents, both linguistic and sartorial, making the swift changes in mannerisms feel as effortless as light switches. Ananth Mahdevan as both Jairaj and Amritlal was a standout to me, to the point that it took me a while to realise it was him as Amritlal in the portrait that hung on stage - captured with the complete detail it required. Joy Sengupta as Vishwas was hilarious and definitely helped bring down the intensity of the play. The real show-stoppers were Suchitra Pillai and Lillete Dubey as Lata and Ratna, gracefully propelling the story, as smooth as Well Strung sitars. 

Mahesh Dattani’s works remind me of the expressionism of Tennessee Williams’ and his cohort, adapting the same voice into a modern Indian setting in the English language. He uses the domestic space and its challenges to elaborate upon deeper personal anxieties that come with gender, sexuality and class. The use of the psychological metaphor of dual roles, casting the second generation to play the younger selves of the first generation is a strong tool to show the play’s intentions of exploring generational trauma.